Home > National > North Korea

South Korean man charged with collaborating with North's hackers to bankroll Pyongyang's weapons program

Published: 11 Jun. 2025, 17:56

A projection of binary code on a hooded man is pictured in this illustration from on May 13, 2017. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

A South Korean man had been secretly collaborating with North Korean hackers for more than a decade — selling ghost player programs, building gambling apps and funneling billions of won across the border — and even helped bankroll Pyongyang’s weapons program, the prosecution said Wednesday.

The man in his 50s, identified only by his surname, Kim, led the domestic management of an illegal gambling platform developed by North Korean hackers, allegedly maintaining close ties with them since 2009, according to an indictment released on Wednesday.

Prosecutors detailed Kim’s longstanding relationship with the hackers in a brief of the National Security Act violation case submitted to People Power Party Rep. Joo Jin-woo. According to the indictment, Kim was previously involved in selling auto-play programs created by North Korea’s Reconnaissance General Bureau in China.

In January 2009, Kim received these programs — designed to automate gameplay and earn rewards without player interaction — from North Korean hackers in Weihai, China. He sold them to South Korean users for about 7 million won ($5,090). The programs were made by hacking well-known online role-playing games in Korea, according to the prosecution.

At the time, Kim was aware that the hackers were members of a North Korean IT development team operating abroad under government orders to generate hard currency. Although he received a 10-month suspended prison sentence in 2012 for distributing the programs, prosecutors said this conviction only solidified his resolve to profit through North Korean cybercrime.

The logo for Korea's National Intelligence Service [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

In 2016, Kim met a hacker affiliated with Bureau 313 of North Korea’s Ministry of Munitions Industry in Yanji, China, and requested the development of four mobile gambling games. Bureau 313 is known for dispatching IT personnel overseas to fund Pyongyang’s missile and nuclear weapons programs. Kim served as the chief coordinator of a syndicate managing and distributing gambling software.

Even after the hacker returned to North Korea in August 2019, Kim continued working with successors introduced to him, maintaining and operating a comprehensive gambling site.

In January 2023, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service was tipped off on a South Korean national in China distributing illegal gambling services. Kim was arrested by the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s security investigation division when he entered Korea in November of that year.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Kim on May 26 on charges of violating the National Security Act and operating illegal gambling businesses. From March 2021 to August 2024, Kim allegedly made 23.5 billion won in profit, at least 7 billion won of which prosecutors believe was funneled to North Korean hackers. Authorities suspect this money was handed over to the North Korean regime and used to support the rule of leader Kim Jong-un.

Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.
BY SHIM SEOK-YONG [[email protected]]